Sunset on water for background

[THREEL]

I was wondering if I could get some advice on how to make this watery sunset better. The water is made up of a flat plane 500' x 500'. It contains 250,000 polys. I know that's a lot, but I did this particular object quite a while back, and, hopefully I've improved since then. Render subpatch level: 10, subdivision order: First.

Surfacing for the water is as follows: Color: 009, 101, 255 Lum: 0%
Diff: 75% Spec: 100% Gloss: 100% Reflect: 75% Transp: 0% Transl: 0% Bump: 100% with a Texture of Crumple: Text Val: 75% Freq: 5 Sm Pow: 0.9 Scale: X=20' Y=20' Z=20', Pos: X=0' Y=-1' Z=0', Smoothing is Checked, Threshold: 89.5%

The sun and sky are from Skytracer2 everything is turned on to high settings. Both cloud types are turned on with Volumetric checked. Level: High.

Rendering: Res: 640 x 480, Antialiasing: Classic High, Rad: Off, Caus: Off
Reconstruction Filter: Classic

It took 17 passes, and 27m55s to render this frame on my computer. I know some of the things for this scene are probably overkill, while others are underdone.

For now I'm only using this frame for the project I'm working on.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

tHANX!!!

tHREEL (AL)

[meshpig]

250 000 polys? Crazy S**t!

-Water planes are best done with less rather than more polys so you can apply a textured displacement, for example. They bend better if you have an appropriate amount rather than sheer excess.

-Try starting with a smaller subdiv. plane. Also, it's too bright for a sunset.


:)
M

[starbase1]

Have you considered using other tools? Terragen is a LOT better at this sort of thing, and it is a lot easier to get good sunsets over the sea in TG with no experience than it is to make them look good in LW with loads...

(And there's a free version for non commercial use too).

Nick

[THREEL]

Here's Take 2. I'm I headed in the right direction? This water plane has only 2500 polys. Is that still too many? I backed off the intensity for the SKT_Sun Light as well.

Starbase1: I'l have to give Terragen a try, but this is for a promo video, so I doubt if I can use the free version for it.

tHANX guys!

tHREEL

[Edbittner]

OK,
Here's one I did in LW 5.6 using skytracer1. (Pardon the compression artifacts and the lens flare as they were a part of a video). However, I would consider putting more texture in the water. In the bump channel, play with crumple and fractal noise at various settings,(low at first), then increase them until you get what you like. It might break the sun reflection, as it hits the water, look a bit more natyral.
E.

[starbase1]

If you are taking LW forward, I think the most important thing is to break up that reflection of the Sun on the completely smooth areas - I suggest adding bump - crumple with negative strength, large scale, and lots of octaves / levels might be a good start.

[Edbittner]

break up that reflection of the Sun on the completely smooth areas - I suggest adding bump - crumple with negative strength, large scale, and lots of octaves / levels might be a good start.
I guess that is what I was trying to say....
E.

[Edbittner]

OK,
the water, look a bit more natyral.
E.
Meant to say natural. Sorry.......
E.

[THREEL]

If you are taking LW forward, I think the most important thing is to break up that reflection of the Sun on the completely smooth areas - I suggest adding bump - crumple with negative strength, large scale, and lots of octaves / levels might be a good start.

Hi Nick,

I see what you're saying, but how do I go about doing that when the entire surface of the "ocean" plane is already textured with a crumple setting? The smooth areas are predetermined by how :lwicon: renders the texture on the plane.

tHANX!:)

[THREEL]

Here's another version with the sun higher in the sky.

What I would really like to do with this one is put a cloud bank in front of the sun, so that you may not necessarily see the sun, per se, but see the shafts of light penetrating through holes in the cloud bank, reaching down towards the water. Also, I'm hoping that it will create the proverbial silver lining around the cloud bank.

Any suggestions on how to go about this.

tHANX!!! :D

AL

[starbase1]

I think it's looking a whole lot better now - I'm not sure I understand though, if you already had that stuff in the bump channel.

Anyway, if you want those beams (crepuscular rays to get technical) you will have to use a volumetric light, hypervoxel clouds, and a render time of 5 or so years...

The Atmospheric Optics site has loads of info, (and a solar halo simulator, great fun), but I am afraid you are moving squarly into territory best handles by Terragen here.

AO site:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rayshad.htm

[THREEL]

Here's the latest version. As you can see, I added some hills and some crosses. I'm doing this for a chapter in the Promo video that deals with the churches in the community.

Some problems I see, but I'm not exactly sure how to correct, yet, are as follows:

1. Is it just me, or is the whole render a little blurry?
2. I resized the ocean plane, and tried to re-scale the proceduals, accordingly, but it just seems a little wierd, now.
3. I'm using an image of an actual rock to texture the hills, but it, too, seems blurry. Resolution, or size, or both? I'd really like to have an image (s) of the kind of rock formations that you see in the Middle East.
4. There's a big dot to the left and up from the sun. As you can see, I have lens reflection turned on, but when I turn it off, the dot is still there.
5. I'm pleased with the wood texture that I have applied to the crosses, but it seems to me to have more of a plastic sheen to it, rather than an actual wood finish.

Do you see anything else that I may be missing?

tHANX for all your help!!!

AL

PS--I'll look at Terragen and others, once I finish this Promo Video, which is priority #1.

tHANX, Nick!!!

[peder]

How about this?
http://www.naalsund.net/getpage.php?id=15

Peder Naalsund

[THREEL]

peder: Thanks for the tutorial!

Hopefully, the changes that I made are an improvement. I think so. But, boy, what a difference one minute can make when setting the time for the sun. Just take a look at these 2 renders to see what I mean. I didn't change the intensity on the SKT lights, so you could see how dark it got in one minute.

The other settings like diffuse make a big difference on how the sun reflects off the water. The types of proceduals that are used in the tut make helped as well.

tHANX again!:thumbsup:

AL